The International Labour Organisation estimates that a staggering two-thirds of jobs lost during the pandemic were held by women, due to manual jobs affected by factories closing, high-customer interaction service jobs in the F&B and Beauty sectors, and because the majority of the care-giving rests with women when schools close.
Equally, the #gendergap (defined as the differences experienced by men and women in health, education, economics and politics) has widened. It is now estimated by the World Economic Forum to take over 125 years for the gender gap to be closed.
Additionally, as a result of legacy laws, many countries prevent women from owning and inheriting property, which impacts their ability to access credit through banks, reluctant to lend to those without collateral, which impacts their ability to start their own businesses.
So now more than ever there’s work to be done to help women make the contribution so many want - which is also supported by the UN Sustainable Development Goal #5, which supports #GenderEquality and #Women’sEmpowerment.
But what does this mean?
Gender Equality we understand….treating everyone equally, regardless of gender.
Women’s Empowerment (often seen as quite threatening by some men, as some sort of battle of the sexes!) means simply providing women with the means, skills, & opportunities to gain control over their own lives, make their own choices and achieve their true potential in society – NOT about taking anything away from men!
At Predixa, to remove some of the emotion, we often talk about #Women’sPotential’ instead of ‘Empowerment’. But whichever term you use, the time is now to help women get back into the labour market and reach their full potential, treated equally alongside men. So....no threat there guys!
What’s your view of Women’s Empowerment?
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